Despite the deteriorating situation in the African nation of Mali, the Swedish contingent of about 250 soldiers, which is part of a major UN mission and was intended to continue until at least 2022, will be closed down next year due to insufficient funding. The initiative’s annual cost has been estimated at about $105 million.

Sweden will withdraw its intelligence unit from the UN operation in Mali in 2019, the newspaper Metro revealed.

The 250 Swedish soldiers are currently part of the UN Minusma initiative and the Nordic country’s largest UN commitment. The majority of them are stationed at Camp Nobel located north of the capital city Bamako, which is part of a larger UN camp, where several other nations also have their base.

The Swedish initiative started in 2014 as part of the ongoing UN effort to secure the African country against various Islamist groups. The idea was to continue until 2022, but the Swedish base will be shut down completely for financial reasons. The annual cost of the Swedish presence in Mali has been estimated at between SEK 800 and 900 million a year ($95-105 million)

​”With the framework given by the Ministry of Defense, we cannot finance an independent contribution within the camp. There’s simply not enough money,” Lieutenant Colonel Anders B. Svensson of the Command Staff’s Targeting Department told Metro.